1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique to perform the double-sided printing of a plurality of images on a continuous sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
A continuous sheet for a printing application may include a unique portion. The unique portion is a region that is unintentionally caused in a sheet manufacture process and that is a region in which the sheet partially has a different characteristic. If an image is printed on a region including the unique portion as described above, the resultant image does not have a high quality.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-240493 discloses a method according to which, when a continuous sheet including a unique portion region not suitable for printing is subjected to a double-sided printing, the unique portion regions of the top face and the back face of the sheet are both intentionally prevented from being subjected to a printing process. According to this method, when a unique portion of a continuous sheet is sensed during the printing of the first face, then a prohibited region is set in the first face printing schedule and a print-prohibited region is also set in the second face printing schedule at a position corresponding to the unique portion of the first face to subsequently continue the printing process.
In the case of the apparatus according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-240493, a maintenance (head maintenance) schedule for a preliminary ejection required for an inkjet printing is not optimized, thus failing to provide a further improvement.